Costa winner sees Bayern to win over Darmstadt

Douglas Costa scored the only goal of the game as Bayern Munich edged basement side Darmstadt 1-0 in their Bundesliga clash on Sunday.

Darmstadt 0 Bayern Munich 1
Lewandowski heads wide on 34 minutes
Costa nets in the 71st minute
Niemeyer wastes his chance in injury time

Match Summary

With Bayern struggling to get through a determined Darmstadt defence, it took an excellent long-range effort from Costa to secure the three points.

Full Report

Darmstadt started well with Sandro Sirigu seeing his first-time effort cut out after a good break down the left flank from Marcel Heller.

Arturo Vidal then fired a wild shot well over the goal as Heller saw his fifth-minute strike deflect out off a Bayern defender.

Jan Rosenthal headed into the side netting from the resultant corner ahead of great block from Aytac Sulu to deny David Alaba from getting his shot away.

Darmstadt found themselves pegged back as Bayern attacked down the flanks, but despite putting in some good cross, the likes of Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski were unable to capatalise.

71′ WHAT A GOAL! 1-0 @FCBayernEN

Costa fires in a 30-yard screamer right into the top corner! @sv98‘ hearts broken #D98FCB pic.twitter.com/rnWhqUFHbJ

— FOX Sports Football (@FOXSportsFC) December 18, 2016
Costa’s 25-yard shot on 22 minutes failed to trouble Michael Esser in the home goal as Rosenthal smashed a volley just over at the other end.

Lewandowski came close to opening the scoring 10 minutes before the break with a header that flew inches wide, from a good Thiago free-kick.

Matts Hummels was next to head just over, also from a Costa free-kick, while the final chance of the first half saw Lewandowski bend a strike just over the Darmstadt goal with Esser scrambling.

Jerome Gondorf’s early shot at the start of the second half flew just over the target after a good knock down from Sven Schipplock as Muller went close moments later.

Esser though was equal to his volley as he latched on a clever Lewandowski poked pass.

Lewandowski then failed to make significant contact on his volley on 56 minutes as Rafinha fired in a pass to the Polish striker in the box.

Mario Vrancic curled a free-kick a yard wide of goal before Muller headed another good chance wide.

It looked like Bayern might live to rue their numerous misses, until Costa buried his chance with 71 minutes played.

The Brazilian picked up a short free-kick, shifted the ball onto his left foot before smashing an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.

Muller continued to miss in front of goal before Darmstadt wasted their best chance to get on the scoresheet.

Peter Niemeyer failed to get any power to his header as the ball dropped to him after Manuel Neuer had parried a Gondorf free-kick into his path.

And that piece of action proved to be Darmstadt’s last chance to salvage anything from this game. They will feel hard done by while Bayern owe a serious gratitude of debt to their goalscorer.